America's 250th anniversary should have been the Daughters of the American Revolution's finest hour.
Instead the organization is being consumed by left-wing ideology while the women who built it watch from the outside.
What the DAR's own president belongs to explains exactly how it got this far.
DAR President Blocks Transgender Vote After Members Demand Special Session
Since 2023, Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR) members have pushed every available channel to get a vote on what the word "woman" means in their own bylaws – and every time, national leadership has found a way to bury it.
The latest attempt came when DAR President General Ginnie Sebastian Storage rejected requests from multiple chapters seeking a special session to vote on the definition of "woman."
Her letter was blunt.
"The National Society's representative body has already fully considered and decided the proposed resolution," Storage wrote. "Article VIII does not require the President General to convene that body only months later to take another vote on the identical resolution."
Translation: the debate is over, and Storage is the one who decides when it's over.
The chapters pushing for the special session had already watched a previous resolution – one that would have limited membership to those "born female" – go down in defeat at the DAR's 135th Continental Congress in June.
That vote was 1,481 to 984.
But the losing side has serious questions about how that vote went down.
Laura McDonald, treasurer of the Martha Laird DAR chapter in Mount Pleasant, Texas, and founder of Daughters Advocating for Restoration, said members were handed a "one-sided legal memo" before the vote – a document that implied the DAR had no First Amendment right to define its own membership.
That memo was wrong.
The Center for American Liberty confirmed the DAR "would have a strong First Amendment defense" for exclusively admitting women.
McDonald also pointed out that the vote was supposed to happen at an October special meeting – one members had spent months organizing toward.
Instead, the DAR's National Board of Management moved it onto the Continental Congress agenda, with notice sent only "by email to voting members of the 135th Continental Congress and by posting on the Members' Website" – Storage's own words.
Ginnie Sebastian Storage Joined the Pro-Transgender DAR Group While Running the Organization
Storage is not a neutral referee overseeing an internal dispute.
Facebook records show she joined Daughters for Inclusivity – the pro-transgender advocacy group that organized specifically to defeat the female-only resolution.
She also "loved" a Facebook post from a self-described "trans daughter" on her personal account.
After the June vote, Storage posted publicly: "Thank you all!"
She is an activist who used parliamentary procedure to lock in a result she wanted, then used her office to make sure it couldn't be revisited.
The women Storage is silencing built the Daughters Advocating for Restoration movement from scratch – its Facebook group now has 19,000 members who joined because they believe a women's organization should be for women.
Thousands more have simply left.
Storage's letter insisted the June vote "reflects the considered judgment of the membership assembled at the Continental Congress, and it deserves our respect."
What she did not address is the reality that thousands of members who cared most about this question were not "the membership assembled at Continental Congress" – they were former members who had already walked out.
Blackburn Introduces DAR Membership Integrity Act to Override Biological Women Ban
Sen. Marsha Blackburn introduced the Daughters of the American Revolution Membership Integrity Act in July – legislation that would amend the DAR's 1896 federal charter to explicitly require biological female membership.
Sens. Katie Britt, Tommy Tuberville, Mike Lee, and Kevin Cramer signed on as co-sponsors.
Rep. Ben Cline led the House version.
"The Daughters of the American Revolution was founded by women for women," Blackburn said, "and its founders would be appalled that the organization is now allowing biological males to become members and undermine the legacy of real women who helped build our nation."
That charter – granted by Congress in 1896 – is what gives DAR its legal clout, its federal protections, and its relationship with the Smithsonian Institution.
The same Congress that granted that charter can amend it.
Storage's parliamentary maneuver blocked another internal vote.
It cannot block the United States Senate.
Sources:
- Jordan Boyd, "Daughters Of American Revolution President Squashes Another Attempt To Preserve The Org's Female-Only Charge," The Federalist, August 7, 2026.
- Mollie Hemingway, "DAR Betrays Mission By Letting Men Join," The Federalist, June 29, 2026.
- "Blackburn Leads Colleagues in Introducing Legislation to Keep Biological Men Out of the Daughters of the American Revolution," Office of Sen. Marsha Blackburn, July 2026.
- "U.S. Senators Katie Britt, Marsha Blackburn, Colleagues Introduce Legislation to Keep Biological Men out of Daughters of the American Revolution," Office of Sen. Katie Britt, July 2026.
- Valerie Richardson, "Daughters of American Revolution assembly defeats proposal to block transgender members," The Washington Times, June 27, 2026.
- Valerie Richardson, "Daughters of American Revolution, transgender heading for showdown at annual meeting," The Washington Times, June 24, 2026.
